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1I bethought myself to go upstairs and see how the dying woman sped, who lay there almost unheeded: the very servants
2paid her but a remittent attention: the hired nurse, being little looked after, would slip out of the room whenever she
3could. Bessie was faithful; but she had her own family to mind, and could only come occasionally to the hall. I found
4the sick-room unwatched, as I had expected: no nurse was there; the patient lay still, and seemingly lethargic; her
5livid face sunk in the pillows: the fire was dying in the grate. I renewed the fuel, re-arranged the bedclothes, gazed
6awhile on her who could not now gaze on me, and then I moved away to the window. The rain beat strongly against the
7panes, the wind blew tempestuously: "One lies there," I thought, "who will soon be beyond the war of earthly elements.
8Whither will that spirit--now struggling to quit its material tenement--flit when at length released?" In pondering the
9great mystery, I thought of Helen Burns, recalled her dying words--her faith--her doctrine of the equality of
10disembodied souls. I was still listening in thought to her well-remembered tones--still picturing her pale and spiritual
11aspect, her wasted face and sublime gaze, as she lay on her placid deathbed, and whispered her longing to be restored to
12her divine Father's bosom--when a feeble voice murmured from the couch behind: "Who is that?" I knew Mrs. Reed had not
13spoken for days: was she reviving? I went up to her. "It is I, Aunt Reed." "Who--I?" was her answer. "Who are you?"
14looking at me with surprise and a sort of alarm, but still not wildly. "You are quite a stranger to me--where is
15Bessie?" "She is at the lodge, aunt." "Aunt," she repeated. "Who calls me aunt? You are not one of the Gibsons; and yet
16I know you--that face, and the eyes and forehead, are quiet familiar to me: you are like--why, you are like Jane Eyre!"
17I said nothing: I was afraid of occasioning some shock by declaring my identity. "Yet," said she, "I am afraid it is a
18mistake: my thoughts deceive me. I wished to see Jane Eyre, and I fancy a likeness where none exists: besides, in eight
19years she must be so changed." I now gently assured her that I was the person she supposed and desired me to be: and
20seeing that I was understood, and that her senses were quite collected, I explained how Bessie had sent her husband to
21fetch me from Thornfield. "I am very ill, I know," she said ere long. "I was trying to turn myself a few minutes since,
22and find I cannot move a limb. It is as well I should ease my mind before I die: what we think little of in health,
23burdens us at such an hour as the present is to me. Is the nurse here? or is there no one in the room but you?" I
24assured her we were alone. "Well, I have twice done you a wrong which I regret now. One was in breaking the promise
25which I gave my husband to bring you up as my own child; the other--" she stopped. "After all, it is of no great
26importance, perhaps," she murmured to herself: "and then I may get better; and to humble myself so to her is painful."
27She made an effort to alter her position, but failed: her face changed; she seemed to experience some inward
28sensation--the precursor, perhaps, of the last pang. "Well, I must get it over. Eternity is before me: I had better tell
29her.--Go to my dressing-case, open it, and take out a letter you will see there." I obeyed her directions. "Read the
30letter," she said. It was short, and thus conceived:-- "MADAM,-- "Will you have the goodness to send me the address of
31my niece, Jane Eyre, and to tell me how she is? It is my intention to write shortly and desire her to come to me at
32Madeira. Providence has blessed my endeavours to secure a competency; and as I am unmarried and childless, I wish to
33adopt her during my life, and bequeath her at my death whatever I may have to leave. I am, Madam, &c., &c., "JOHN EYRE,
34Madeira." It was dated three years back. "Why did I never hear of this?" I asked. "Because I disliked you too fixedly
35and thoroughly ever to lend a hand in lifting you to prosperity. I could not forget your conduct to me, Jane--the fury
36with which you once turned on me; the tone in which you declared you abhorred me the worst of anybody in the world; the
37unchildlike look and voice with which you affirmed that the very thought of me made you sick, and asserted that I had
38treated you with miserable cruelty. I could not forget my own sensations when you thus started up and poured out the
39venom of your mind: I felt fear as if an animal that I had struck or pushed had looked up at me with human eyes and
40cursed me in a man's voice.--Bring me some water! Oh, make haste!" "Dear Mrs. Reed," said I, as I offered her the
41draught she required, "think no more of all this, let it pass away from your mind. Forgive me for my passionate
42language: I was a child then; eight, nine years have passed since that day." She heeded nothing of what I said; but when
43she had tasted the water and drawn breath, she went on thus-- "I tell you I could not forget it; and I took my revenge:
44for you to be adopted by your uncle, and placed in a state of ease and comfort, was what I could not endure. I wrote to
45him; I said I was sorry for his disappointment, but Jane Eyre was dead: she had died of typhus fever at Lowood. Now act
46as you please: write and contradict my assertion--expose my falsehood as soon as you like. You were born, I think, to be
47my torment: my last hour is racked by the recollection of a deed which, but for you, I should never have been tempted to
48commit." "If you could but be persuaded to think no more of it, aunt, and to regard me with kindness and
49forgiveness----" "You have a very bad disposition," said she, "and one to this day I feel it impossible to understand:
50how for nine years you could be patient and quiescent under any treatment, and in the tenth break out all fire and
51violence, I can never comprehend." "My disposition is not so bad as you think: I am passionate, but not vindictive. Many
52a time, as a little child, I should have been glad to love you if you would have let me; and I long earnestly to be
53reconciled to you now: kiss me, aunt." I approached my cheek to her lips: she would not touch it. She said I oppressed
54her by leaning over the bed, and again demanded water. As I laid her down--for I raised her and supported her on my arm
55while she drank--I covered her ice-cold and clammy hand with mine: the feeble fingers shrank from my touch--the glazing
56eyes shunned my gaze. "Love me, then, or hate me, as you will," I said at last, "you have my full and free forgiveness:
57ask now for God's, and be at peace." Poor, suffering woman! it was too late for her to make now the effort to change her
58habitual frame of mind: living, she had ever hated me--dying, she must hate me still. The nurse now entered, and Bessie
59followed. I yet lingered half-an-hour longer, hoping to see some sign of amity: but she gave none. She was fast
60relapsing into stupor; nor did her mind again rally: at twelve o'clock that night she died. I was not present to close
61her eyes, nor were either of her daughters. They came to tell us the next morning that all was over. She was by that
62time laid out. Eliza and I went to look at her: Georgiana, who had burst out into loud weeping, said she dared not go.
63There was stretched Sarah Reed's once robust and active frame, rigid and still: her eye of flint was covered with its
64cold lid; her brow and strong traits wore yet the impress of her inexorable soul. A strange and solemn object was that
65corpse to me. I gazed on it with gloom and pain: nothing soft, nothing sweet, nothing pitying, or hopeful, or subduing
66did it inspire; only a grating anguish for her woes--not my loss--and a sombre tearless dismay at the fearfulness of
67death in such a form. Eliza surveyed her parent calmly. After a silence of some minutes she observed-- "With her
68constitution she should have lived to a good old age: her life was shortened by trouble." And then a spasm constricted
69her mouth for an instant: as it passed away she turned and left the room, and so did I. Neither of us had dropt a tear.
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